For more than 70 years, the world has been talking about a “two-state solution” where one of those states would be Arab and one would be Jewish. It sounds great on paper and it even passed a vote of the nations. Just one problem. The Arabs didn’t agree. Fired up on dreams of having it all, they chose war. Five trained armies attacked what could arguably be called the weakest, least prepared population in the world from several directions. It was the most done deal ever. All logic said they’d succeed in their promise to push the Jews into the sea. In reality, the Arabs forgot to take into account one simple issue – the clear desperation (and determination) of the Jews not to be pushed off the one and only land that historically had always been theirs.
Even after their rather ignoble defeat by a bunch of ill-trained and ill-equipped Jews, the Arabs continued to believe and push for a one-state solution, while the Jewish population – first from a position of weakness and later from a position of strength, showed its willingness to adapt our dreams to modern realities in the form of having a formal Palestinian state. The one thing many of us have said, some whispering on the side, others shouting it out to any who would listen, is that a two state solution has always been the formula of nightmares. It never could have worked. It never will.
For 70 years, every time we even come close, the Arabs launch either a war or an intifada. The difference apparently being the severity of the attacks and the number of Jews that needed to be healed or buried.
They’ve used tanks and planes, bombs and guns, axes and knives. They’ve exploded, stabbed, shot…in short, they don’t really want a two state solution. They want, have always wanted, a one-state solution. One Arab state to join the other 40 or so Muslim countries in the world and complete their domination of Islam’s three holy cities (even though, to be honest, Jerusalem ranks a distant third to Mecca and Medina).
For 70 years, Israel has had the demand of a two-state solution rammed down our throats. We’ve been told we need to sacrifice – and we have. Tens of thousands of victims of this endless violence, land we conquered as a result of a war they started, returned, only to have to conquer it again the next time they attacked us.
We have been isolated, charged with idiotic crimes we didn’t commit. Our representatives around the world have been targeted, insulted, attacked, even assassinated. Our people have been blown up in buses in Bulgaria, rammed in distant cities, insulted in the streets of Amsterdam, Paris, London and beyond. The UN has voted; the Arab leaders have conferenced. The Hague has hagued and world leaders have blustered and pressured Israel.
We have released thousands of prisoners (many to return and attack again), offered more good will gestures than any Pope. We have given them guns (what idiot thought of THAT idea?), treated their wounded and their sick. We have rushed in when nature creates havoc, and then we are accused of opening dams that don’t exist in order to flood areas that were built poorly given the lay of the land.
Through it all, our politicians continue to mouth words about working towards a two state solution and a viable resolution to a conflict that can’t be resolved by any party other than the main two elements – the Palestinians and the Israelis. And, in reality, peace and the resolution to this conflict has always been solely and completely in the hands of the Palestinians and all they EVER had to do, was accept reality. We are here. We are staying. Israel will not cease to exist no matter how many UN resolutions are passed, no matter how many times our politicians are screamed down by mobs of Europeans.
There will be no peace rammed down anyone’s throat and so long as the world concentrates on punishing Israel and blaming us, the Palestinians will sit on the side and smirk, rack up more points, and watch as their people continue to live in the same conditions, same crowded areas. Their children will continue to die when they come to stab Israelis; their drivers will continue to be shot by a soldier or an armed civilian as they attempt (or sometimes succeed) in ramming innocents.
Gaza will flood when it rains because the money they take from gullible nations is used on rockets and not sewer pipes; and every time Hamas builds another training camp, we’ll eventually bomb it to smithereens. Rockets will be blown out of the sky and sometimes, we’ll respond and blow up the launch pad, sending a few militants to greet Allah permanently (where they will learn that apparently that 72 virgin greeting is a myth of epic proportions).
Next week, world delegates are set to meet in Paris to further discussions on the only solution they see to the conflict. The two-state solution that the Palestinians will never agree to because you can’t stop or start history when you want to. History didn’t begin in 1967, and it didn’t end there either.
Jews have more historical and archeological documentation to prove our connection to this land predates ANY and ALL cultures in the world. No UN resolution will change the fact that the Temple Mount is…duh…the place where the Temple was mounted – housed, built and rebuilt.
Israel will not attend the Paris conference, as it didn’t (wasn’t invited) to attend the Arab Summit which resulted in the Arab Peace Initiative. There really is no reason for Israel to go. We were there in the United Nations Security Council, as 15 nations, including some that we consider to be friends, voted in an unbalanced Security Council Resolution 2334. There is no doubt the attendees at the Paris conference will deliver the same call – for a two-state solution on borders that disappeared 50 years ago, and were only in existence for 19 years. Borders that were, in both cases – in 1948 and in 1967, determined by acts of aggression by the Arabs.
We will not return to the 1967 borders. Over 450,000 Jews now live in areas that were returned to Jewish rule because the Arabs insisted they could have it all. The Arabs wanted a one-state solution in 1948, and they got what they thought they wanted. There is one state – between the river and the sea, and that is Israel.
The Arabs living within our borders have two options – they can accept that we are here, the ONLY Jewish state in the world, one where they have tremendous quality of life, access to unmatched medical care, excellent schools, modern highways, high-speed internet…in short, a modern developed nation willing to share the abundance of what we work so hard for here, or they can leave and go to anyone of 40 other Muslim nations.
We pulled out of Gaza ten years ago and the land that we had cultivated, beautiful homes, productive agricultural centers – all gone. We destroyed the homes that we left behind; the Arabs desecrated the synagogues and burned the green houses that could have yielded them work for hundreds of people and millions of dollars in revenue. And from those areas, they created terrorist training camps and fired rockets. And so, as nations send their representatives to Paris, I offer this open letter.
Dear Paris “Peace” Summit Delegates:
Bonjour and bienvenue to Paris. We are sorry that you have come for nothing. No peace will come from the work you do in the next few days; no agreement will be implemented. No one will be saved, though many may die. We have learned that when the nations of the world attempt to impose peace, more violence results.
We would like to offer you some important “talking points” – questions you should ask the Palestinians.
- If the post-1967 borders are the only problem and you believe peace will come if there is a return to the pre-1967 lines, why were there wars in 1948, 1956 and 1967? Why did you create a terrorist organization to fight the occupation, a full three years before there even WAS an occupation?
- If you are willing to compromise even a little, why didn’t you accept when Israel offered you 97% of the land decades ago?
- In 2013, Abu Mazen, the President of the Palestinian Authority who is now in his 12th year of his 4 year term said, July, 2013 Abbas said that “no Jew, civilian or otherwise, would be permitted to live in the future Palestinian state he envisions.” So, if no Jews are to be allowed to live in your areas, will you be removing all the Arabs from Israel? Will the Arab Knesset members resign, the Arab doctors leave the hospitals? Will this true separation of Arab and Jew not mean massive unemployment among the newly dispersed former Arab Israelis? Have you asked them if this is what they want?
- Are you offering a permanent peace agreement or are you offering a hudna? A hudna is a temporary ceasefire – like the one Mohammed signed as the Treaty of Al Hudaybiyya. In that treaty, a 10-year peace/ceasefire was negotiated and then broken.
Ask those questions but to be honest, the answers don’t matter because, sadly, the Arabs are much better at reading your minds than you are of reading theirs. They say, and you believe; they promise, and you fall. So let me also offer something for Israel’s side.
We are the only ones who have matched action to words. We have not just spoken of peace, we have taken concrete steps towards making this possible. When we realized that we were under attack, we defended our land and our people, doing our best to minimize injury and hurt to the other side.
We’ve stated our case, explained our past. We’ve shown you the evidence that we have been here for thousands of years and we have done our best to take our place among the modern nations. We’ve talked. We’ve negotiated. We’ve done it all, including things no nation should have to do. No nation should have to bury its children or send their sons and daughters to protect, to serve. Just as you have your teenage sons having fun, hanging out with friends, going to the beach and having girlfriends. We want that too.
Instead, we dress them in uniforms, arm them with rifles and then we pray that some Palestinian won’t decide to serve his God by murdering our child. Go ahead, shmooze at your summit, confer at your conference, but know this.
The people of Israel have done all that we can and we will continue to try. What we won’t continue to do is be your whipping post. You won’t make peace with this latest conference. Even if we were there, it would make no difference.
But since you are there, you might as well deliver a message to the Arabs for us.
Peace will not be rammed down your throats; war will not be rammed down ours. If you send your children to hurt ours, we will hurt yours, even kill them if we have to. We won’t let you steal our humanity, nor will we let you steal our lives.
So talk if you want to – talks that will go nowhere because you and we know that the only productive talks will be direct talks without preconditions. You say you want Jerusalem as your capital, and we say “hell no. Let’s talk.” You say you want the 1967 borders, and we say “let’s talk.” Because we know that ultimately, you’ll never agree to that two-state solution. We see you. We know you and most importantly, we aren’t fooled by what you say because we see what you do.
From this land, we will not move; from our home, you will not remove us. Peace will come when you want it, not when you kill for it.
